The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon

Shortlisted for The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now First Novel Prize

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Hard Frost

It has been a while since my last post. Thanksgiving has come and gone and the first really hard frost hit us the night before last.

A few weeks back the family headed out to the farm I grew up on to make a few repairs to my mother's house. While we were there I took the kids for a walk around the perimeter of the property. A lot has changed since I was growing up there and yet a lot remains the same. During the walk every hundred yards or so we'd sample the ripening apples on the trees we passed that grow in the fence rows. Apart from the tree in the barnyard with the enormous pie apples, I don't really recall sampling the fruit from the trees scattered along the edges of the property.

We were surprised at the variety and the bounty. Some were tart but one tree has these amazingly sweet apples. Most are snow white on the inside. One tree has whitish flesh with red tints bleeding through. All of the trees were heavily laden and all about was the evidence of deer. Apparently the trees are a favourite among the local ungulate population.

Last weekend we made an afternoon trip during a break from what has seemed like constant rain to pick apples. Here's what we came away with:

We've now sorted and stored most of these apples in the root cellar and the rest have been made into sauce and used in cooking. The front porch still smells comfortably of apples.

With Thanksgiving came the fall colours. Some trees are mid-change:

Others have completely changed like this great tree just down the street:

And others, like this one in our front yard, have lost their leaves completely:

In writing news, I continue to plod away at Patriot. I haven't been writing as much as I would like. Holidays and school PD days have been playing havoc with anything like a schedule, as has the park I am working on for our local Heritage Committee. Yesterday I returned to a project that has been shelved for a while and since the story starts on a sunny autumn day it seemed appropriate for me to work on it while the sun shines and the leaves blow in whirlwinds among the trees. The story? My children's story about an orphaned giant who has to find his way in the world.

Speaking of the Heritage park - BT Corner is coming along nicely. The stone wall is being built. It's a joy to watch the masons work. They're real craftsmen and I am a huge fan of craftsmanship. Yesterday they began to lay the paving and I'm thinking today they might be in a position to level the limestone screening.